Dealership signs

["Walter Coe" <Whalt@xxxx>]

I just brought home today the real thing: a DeLorean dealership sign. My
coolness factor has suddenly almost doubled. :-)

I found out about this sign by bidding on one that was on eBay recently. As
with every dealership sign, there are two sides and the side that I got was
the other side to the one on eBay. I would have bought both sides, but
someone outbid me literally at the last minute. Don't you just hate that?
At the time I was the high bidder and didn't want to outbid myself by
increasing my maximum bid. Then I lost track of the time and forgot when
the auction ended.

Anyway, the sign that I got is in slightly better condition than the one on
eBay. (Childish sarcastic raspberry to the guy who outbid me. ;-) This one
is missing the "D" instead of the "C". If I got both signs I would have
mixed & matched the letters to make one original sign and then had new
letters made to make the donor sign complete. But it didn't work out that
way. If the buyer of the other sign is reading this, I'll consider selling
you my "M" & "C" because your "M" is less perfect than mine and you need the
"C" anyway. For mine I will probably use the letters I have for a pattern
to replace all three letters so they match. Your sign was already all boxed
up waiting to be shipped when I saw it today. I saw both signs a week
earlier before the auction ended.

Now some questions for y'all:
Does anyone have a spare letter "D" for sale? I presume that a "C" that is
flipped over would be the same as a "D".

Is this something that a local sign company could make? Or should it be
done by a SS fabricator?

How common is it for the stainless letters to fall off of these signs?

How does one remove the remaining letters without screwing things up?

Are the stainless sections supposed to be painted with a crummy clear coat
or is this something that someone did locally?

For those who are curious, the sign measures 11' 4" x 3' 0" and is only a
few inches thick. The DMC letters are polished SS and the background is
brushed SS like the car. The white areas are translucent plastic and the
back areas are painted aluminum sheet.

I'm thinking about hanging it high on a wall in the house and using it as a
light fixture. I can't hang it in my garage without blocking things.
Eccentric I am? What some people use for transportation, others have as a
lifestyle.

Walt Tampa, FL